Got the dining plan but also got a issue

[Robbya]

okay so here i go....last night i booked the 4 night get 3 free deal for port orleans french quarter. We got the dining plan that is recomended on the disney website...It has a snack, counter service, and table service. One of each for each day... now i was trying to figure out how to work with this...if i use the counter service for breakfast i will have to pay for lunch or dinner right...i was just wondering how you all got around this whole thing. Am i just doomed to fess up and pay?

 

[maggiew]

We've never done the dining plan as a family. But what we usually do is have a late breakfast (brunch) and then an early dinner. You can use your snack credit for a late night fireworks snack.

Maggie

 

[hotdogmj71]

We have used the DDP 3 times, but we're not big breakfast eaters either. Yes, you'll have to pay out of pocket for 1 meal if you have 3 meals per day.

You can use your snack credits for breakfast snacks/fruits though, and then will have 2 meal credits for later in the day. And a couple of times, we had an early lunch, stopped at a bakery for an afternoon snack, then had supper.

 

[SuzieN]

You can also use your snack credits for breakfast. What we usually did was stop at the food court (we were also at POFQ) each night when we returned from the parks and pick up breakfast to eat in our room the next morning. You can get a single serving of cereal plus milk for 1 credit. We also got muffins, fruit cups, yogurt, etc.....all for 1 snack credit. It worked well for us!

 

[disney4us2002]

I guess so much depends on your party size and your appetite. My family of 5 are all considered "adults" so we have 5 CS and 5 TS everyday which we would be hard-pressed to actually eat. My kids are NOT morning risers so lunch might be the first meal they're interested in but in any event, I figure we can share many CS meals as it is a lot of food plus dessert which I will gladly forgo for the kids' benefit and my waistline. That way, we could spend 2 CS for bkft at the resort if we're hungry and then share 3 CS at the parks for lunch. The kids would probably be very happy to pick up a cinnamon roll at one of the parks on a snack credit as well.

 

[catne]

we found the portion sizes to be good-sized at table & counter service (we rarely finished everything, and we are very big eaters.) We're not big breakfast eaters, so we took breakfast bars/granola bars and planned to eat in the room or on the way to the parks. (we were even less hungry for Breakfast on Disney vacation--most mornings we were still half-full from the dinner the night before!) After the first day, we rarely wanted snacks between meals (really full) so we started using the daily snack credit to buy a yummy pastry for next day's breakfast (kept overnight in a zip-lock baggie to keep them fresh.) This worked out very well for us...lunch was counter service, and dinner was table service. The few times we wanted snacks (gotta have the occasional dole whip or mickey bar!) we paid cash for them...usually less than $3 each. Sometimes we split a snack because we just were not hungry enough.

 

[BabyRN]

We either ate a late breakfast, early lunch to make a brunch out of it. Then if we were planning a later dinner, we would use our snack for in between the 2 meals. Our whole family found it difficult to ever be hungry! You get a lot of food with your meals!

 

[happymommy]

okay so here i go....last night i booked the 4 night get 3 free deal for port orleans french quarter. We got the dining plan that is recomended on the disney website...It has a snack, counter service, and table service. One of each for each day... now i was trying to figure out how to work with this...if i use the counter service for breakfast i will have to pay for lunch or dinner right...i was just wondering how you all got around this whole thing. Am i just doomed to fess up and pay?

I think you may be a bit misinformed?

You get one counter service, and one table service and one snack per night stayed. So if you have two people staying five nights, you would get a total of 10 counter service, 10 table service and 10 snacks. How you choose to use them will be up to you.

So if you have counter service for breakfast, you use up one of those credits. You will still have the snack and table service for that day, or you can use another counter service that day, it's up to you. You can use them up quickly, or spread them out. Just remember to check your receipt after you "pay" with your room key - it will tell you at the bottom how many credits of the kind you just used you have left. Any credits you don't use will expire on midnight of the day you check out.

We just got back after trying it for the first time, and it was very nice. Worked will for our family.

 

[asmit4]

I am a huge eater- I eat way too much honestly and with the basic DDP I was stuffed. By the time I get to day 3 of the DDP, I can barely find space to keep eating.

Normally- we'd have a huge muffin or cinnamon roll for breakfast with a juice. Then for lunch we'd have a value meal- something like a burger and fries, or a BBQ'd chicken meal from cosmic rays which is HUGE. Then for dinner we'd have a huge dinner with a large meal and dessert. I bet in a given day- just using the credits from the DDP, I'm eating over 4000 calories a day! It's fun on days 1 and 2, but then it gets difficult to continue eating like that so we end up starting to cut back- like my mom and I split a muffin, split a large lunch and then each get our own dinner. By the end of the trip-we still have credits left.

 

[pianoronni37]

What my husband and I did on the basic plan seemed to work well for us.

We woke up in the morning, ate breakfast at the resort (All Star Sports) with our CS credits.

Then later in the afternoon at the park we would grab a snack (ice cream, popcorn, baked goods) to hold us over until our dinner ADRs, then we would head off to dinner later in the evening to use our TS!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

We used our snacks for breakfast most mornings. We had oatmeal, grits, fruit, muffins, danish or cereal. Other mornings we split a CS breakfast and than split a CS at lunch. We eat alot and still ended up with 4 left over CS meals which we used for sandwiches to take on the plane. When you add up all the food and portion sizes it is huge. Those snack credits are a great use at breakfast time.

Our TS was used for dinner each night and we were still stuffed the next day.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

If you want 3 full meals, you could also upgrade to the Deluxe Dining plan, although the cost may be a bit much.

 

[tink too]

We've never used the DDP (yet) but I plan on adding it to our ressies for April in the New Year - depending if I can get the ADR's I want tomorrow or not.

In the past, we've either had a snack type item at breakfast then a CS lunch and either a CS or TS dinner OR a character breakfast (which would be classed as a TS) a snack in the afternoon then a CS dinner later in the evening.

Because of our "normal" WDW eating habits, I think the DDP would be a perfect fit for our dining needs.

 

[Gina35]

I agree. My family's "normal" eating habits seem to be like yours, and we have enjoyed the DP for the last several years. It works VERY well; there really is plenty of food. Occasionally we bought lunch (if we used our CS credits in the a.m., etc.) but it was nothing extravagant. The plan covers it all. We also skipped a TS one day and did one signature (2 TS) meal. You'll really enjoy it!

 

[choirfarm]

The five of us were on the dining plan during "free" dining. We generally got 2 CS breakfast plates and 3 snacks to split in the morning. Then we split 3 or 4 CS credits for lunch. One day we did Park Fair breakfast buffet and then we were not hungry until our Boma TS dinner. (We didn't use a TS on our arrival day as we arrived at 11pm). It just varies. Use them as you see fit. Plan out your days. One day you might do 2 CS meals and a snack. Other days you might do two TS. Just think, do you eat 3 BIG meals a day or do you have a big breakfast, light lunch and big dinner? or light granola bar breakfast, big lunch and small dinner? How do you and your family eat. Many people on deluxe say they really NEED 3 meals a day and I believe them. That is how THEY eat. It is not how WE eat. Most CS meals at Sunshine SEasons, Pecos Bills, etc were too big for one person to eat, especially since you get a drink and a dessert. So splitting among family members worked well for us.

Christine

 

[Tomh]

Our group of seven used the DDP last August. We were staying at VWL, so we had a kitchen, and we ate breakfast nearly every morning in the room. We did have a breakfast at CRT, and CP. We paid for CP out of pocket, had one supper at Cosmic Rays (counter service) and ate one supper at Rainforest Cafe' which was also out of pocket.

This summer there will be four of us, and we'll be on the DDP again. We'll be staying at POP, but intend to bring a small thermoelectric cooler so we can keep some simple breakfast food in the room, and a small toaster. That way, we will be able to have breakfast in the room most mornings, and we should be able to get by on our dining credits just fine.

 

[shopn24seven]

It worked out ok for last, in fact the last day we were there, we had 1 TS each to use...had breakfast at KONA's (just 2 of us) and 5 snacks to buy up real quick. LOL.
I had the S, CS and TS plan. I loved it, saved a lot.

 

[KatMark]

We have found that with our big "table service" meal, that DH and I are able to split a counter service for breakfast and lunch most days. Therefore we do one of his counter service for breakfast and one of mine for dinner. It really worked out well last trip.

 

[pamelasu1]

We had the free dining last October and had plenty of food (too much most of the time). As other posters have mentioned, we would pick up "snack" items and save them in our room for breakfast. Also, when we got CS meals at the resort for lunch or dinner, we would get fruit (good sized bowls of grapes, cut up melon, etc) and also keep that in the room for breakfast or late night snacks. We were usually too full to eat a dessert anyway (or we would all share just one dessert), so this worked out really well! The kids also had the resort mugs, so we would get milk or juice as their drinks when at the resort food court and save those for breakfast, too.

Hope this helps!
Pam

 

[wifeofjack]

Hubby and I have used the DDP four times. He is a big breakfast eater, he is also a diabetic and needs to eat breakfast. He would get a CS breakfast at the food court, a juice and we always have the refillable cups. He would also get a small milk as the breakfast CS allows 2 beverages. I would get a bagel or cereal and use a snack credit for that. Then at lunch time we would split a CS, usually a double burger, and I would buy an extra bun for maybe a dollar, use the fixing bar for the toppings. They always give you way too many fries with the burger platters so sharing them was no problem. And we would get a nice table service for dinner time, we have eaten at so many nice places thanks to the DDP. We usually brought the dessert back to our room and would have it the next afternoon if we came back for a swim or just to relax by the pool. We usually never use all the snack credits and end up getting the Mickey rice crispy treats to bring home with us. We will never go to Disney without the DDP, be it "free dining" or if we have to pay out of pocket to get it.